


Fire, Water, Ice

by filia_noctis



Category: Mahabharata - Vyasa
Genre: Freeform, Gen, Prose Poem
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-12-25
Updated: 2018-12-25
Packaged: 2019-09-26 23:20:26
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 216
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17150963
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/filia_noctis/pseuds/filia_noctis
Summary: Shyam, Satyabhama, Shikhandi





	Fire, Water, Ice

**Author's Note:**

  * For [toujours_nigel](https://archiveofourown.org/users/toujours_nigel/gifts).



> Happy wintering, love.

I

The stars wipe their twinkle away

A child croaks

In a tent near his, its nightmares

Stifled with a hand

Quickly

Reverently.

He shifts in the silks

The noise in his head

Only marginally

Louder than the bleats erupting from the

Cockles of the tiny lungs.

The campsite tries at rest

The only sound

The crackle of burnt

Chips howling through the annals of the

Cremating pits

Ever alive.

 

II

 

No one remembers she

Grew by a river.

No one sees it

Seeks it

When she rules by a

Sea.

 

It tickles

Trickles

Splashes around the legs

Leaves enough sand that

Even when it is not sticky,

It lingers.

Strange

To recognise it touch

It's flow

Its lisp, and

Chortle, and

Whisper

Hushed confidences she can’t

Create words for.

 

 

Later, much

Later

When it has taken

Her away

Let her adrift

Make her see words

Like Pain and Hurt, and

That unforgivable one: Betrayal

In the face,

She leans back in the

Murmurs

Her heart soaked

While her

Eyes

Stay dry.

 

III

 

They say

He oughtn’t

Needn’t

Can’t.

Too much

Too high

To great

Demands.

Not imploring

Petitioning

Requesting

Grovelling.

Not bribing

Defiling

Stealing

Plundering.

Still.

Still he

Takes.

And he

Keeps

And

Sustains

And

Maintains

Lives

Doesn’t merely

Survive.

And keeps calling himself I.


End file.
